ABSTRACT
Thomas Bell was a sensitive, thoughtful man, loving, creative, realistic, and hopeful. The characters he created reflect his sensitivity, his ability to love, and his realistic appraisal of what was wrong with American society and the burdensome, restricted lives many Americans endured. Bell's first novel The Breed of Basil was published in 1930, dedicated to his sisters and brother, Pauline, Evelyn, and Anthony. When his fourth novel Till I Come Back to You was published in 1943, Bell was featured on the cover of the Saturday Review of June 26. Bell began to publish short stories about this time, usually in women's magazines. The last of Bell's novels was There Comes a Time, the story of a man who had come from Pennsylvania and who took part in the unionization of the bank where he worked. Bell suffered a writing bloc about this time, producing only one or two short stories a year.
